Choir stars in return to Caterham

Dave Bannister writes: It was a pleasure to bring the choir back to my home town Caterham and childhood church St John’s on June 15. The choir last visited St John’s way back in 2011 when the historic organ was being rebuilt and its 2,300 pipes were stacked around the nave.

CMVC at St John's (photo Glen McCready)

This time the packed audience was swollen by new admirers who had seen the choir perform at the Caterham Street Party two weeks before.

Deputy MD Andrew Moore launched the choir into its energetic first number, Carly Simon’s Let the river Run. Then came Leonard Cohen’s introspective Hallelujah and the set finished with Star of the County Down, specially arranged by the choir’s MD Matthew Quinn, Andrew’s Northern Irish compatriot.

Tremendous variety to the programme was added by Aoqing Yang, a post-graduate student cellist from the Royal College of Music who is surely at the start of a stellar career. Over his two sets he played the six movements of Bach’s Cello Suite No 5 with dexterity, virtuosity and sensitivity.  The appreciative audience demanded an encore and he obliged with Davydov’s romantic Song Without Words, accompanied on piano by the choir’s Sam Prouse.

Soloist Aoqing Yang (photo Paul Binge)

Before the interval, Aoqing’s Bach was contrasted by a set comprising Elvis, a Welsh folk song and a Robbie Williams classic, ending with the Finlandia Hymn by Sibelius, where Sam demonstrated his own virtuosity in the fiendish piano solo.

The second half’s first set included Bob Dylan’s Make You Feel My Love and Puccini’s Nessun Dorma, followed by the choir’s more traditional final set.  Then came a dramatic addition to the choir's numbers. 

During the interval three of the audience had approached Andrew and revealed they were from the London Welsh Male Voice Choir.  They said how much they were enjoying the concert – they had run into the choir’s announcer John Ward Turner in the nearby William Garland pub beforehand – and asked if they could join in one of the traditional MVC songs later in the programme.

After due consultation, Andrew said yes - and the London Welsh trio joined the choir on stage to sing Morte Criste. They had originally asked if they could join us to sing Gwahoddiad, but we pointed out that we sang it in English whereas they knew it in Welsh.

Sam moved to the rebuilt organ to help the choir and guest singers raise the cavernous roof of the church, although the set was interspersed with the hauntingly quiet spiritual Steal Away. The audience demanded an encore and the Hallelujah Chorus sent them away commenting how much they had enjoyed the evening. The choir repaired to the William Garland for recovery refreshment (and more singing…).